Today 600,000 local government workers go on strike. It’s quite an apt day seeing as we publish the non-job of the week. As you’ll see from the bar on the right, there’s fewer jobs on offer this week, but still it's a staggering to see the public sector recruiting at such a rate given these tough economic times.
One thing to note before we unveil the non-job of the week is to issue some clarification over the ‘none specified’ salary category. It’s come to my notice that Councils are beginning to advertise for Chief Executives, and other well known high earners, without disclosing the salary on offer. For instance in this week’s ‘none specified’ category there are a smattering directorships at local councils, heads of service and other positions that we know offer six figure salaries, but the actual remuneration isn’t disclosed. It’s something to bear in mind when looking at the data.
Now to the main event – the non-job of the week. This week’s non-job comes from Oldham Council. Oldham Council was one of the few in the UK to cut its Council Tax last year, but only by 0.8% (how generous of them). The point I want to make with this non-job is that, if you’re going to cut Council Tax by a fraction of a percent, there’s scope for further cuts if you erase the non-jobbers from the Town Halls. From Oldham Council:
“Principal Officer (Communities)
£32,436 - £34,991
To lead work to develop a strong voluntary, community and faith sector in Oldham, and to strengthen mechanisms for engagement of communities with the Council and other organisations, and interaction within and between communities. To support the Council’s work in building community cohesion and developing approaches neighbourhood management.
You can find the rest of the job description here.”
These backroom non-jobbers don’t clean the bins, sweep the streets or keep us safe, so what service is there that taxpayers are involuntarily funding? They’re there to appease the politically correct, the do-gooders who believe government is the miraculous solution to all our woes. In the good times, the political classes saw enough spare cash – and public indifference – to splash out on these jobs in local government. Now we’re all feeling the pinch, these jobs are an extravagance, one we can ill afford. Even though Oldham Council cut its tax, it clearly could have gone further had it not had to bankroll the non-jobbers clogging Town Halls.